Local Search Optimization to get listed on the Google local section of search results for local businesses. This is becoming even more crucial as mobile devices have made Yellow Pages obsolete

Social Medial Marketing to engage potential customers and then invite them to your website when they are ready to visit

Email Marketing serves a double purpose nurturing your leads and current customers plus generating traffic to your website or social media locations. Because this is usually from a list of people who already know and like your business, this is truly valuable traffic.

SEO was once the biggest buzz about Internet Marketing and the service most companies looked for when embarking on the Internet Marketing race. It’s still an incredibly valuable piece of the puzzle. Just look at how many low-quality SEO companies spam you every week wanting to help you with rankings. It’s testament to the importance of SEO.

What is a top ranking in Google worth to you? In real estate it’s Location, Location, and Location. In search marketing it’s the same location theme; you have to be on the first page and preferably in the top 4 to be effective.

Your second major way to drive traffic to your website is through paid advertising, or Pay-per-Click. Google calls these Sponsored Links and sells them in their “Adwords” system. All the search engines sell advertising, but Google dominates the market with Yahoo and Bing (the Microsoft ad network) a distant second.

Many people still swear they never use the paid ads and don’t believe they will work. The facts are that on average about 27% of traffic for a Google search will use the paid ads. The fact that Google’s stock price continues to rise is proof that these ads work and more companies and customers are buying into the concept.

An eye-popping 150 million times per day, people search the Internet for locally-based information in just the United States.

Search engines responded by vastly improving how they give their users access to local information, particularly taking advantage of mobile users. Automatically detecting when someone makes a local search, integrating maps, and social proof, immediately and dramatically changed how businesses are exposed to potential customers.

There are so many choices to connect with your customers, potential customers, and fans of your business: Blogs, YouTube, Forums, LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, Opinion Marketing, and Article Marketing. These are the latest tools the Internet has enabled to connect you with your customers and drive traffic to your website but which will work best for you?

If you are thinking this section is not for you, just consider that the major car companies started investing billions of dollars in 2008 for social media marketing to sell their cars. Today, every major company in the USA is investing in some form of social medial marketing.

There is no easier sale than selling more to existing customers. These existing customers and warm leads are the lifeblood of your business. Email Marketing is extremely flexible and can be acutely targeted in order to maximize deliverability and improve communication with your audience. Staying in touch with them is critical to your growth for almost all businesses.

Standing out with an email marketing campaign, in the midst of hundreds received each week, takes a lot of work and expertise but when executed correctly it is one of the most cost effective forms of communication with your customers.